Abe, for example, has to stay home to fix an active leak under the sink, so he can’t attend his grandson’s soccer game. He thinks, “Ethan will be so disappointed.” His thinking then becomes more extreme: “I’m always letting him down.” He accepts these thoughts as true and feels quite sad. After learning tools of CBT, however, he’s able to use his negative emotion as a cue to identify, evaluate, and respond adaptively to his thoughts. In another situation, Abe was able to respond to a similar automatic thought in this way: “Wait a minute, her parents are going to be at there [at her dance recital]. She may be a little disappointed that I’m not. And it’s not true that I’m always letting her down. I’ve gone to lots of her performances.”

You seek to identify automatic thoughts that are dysfunctional—that is, those that

• distort reality,
• are associated with an unhelpful emotional and/or physiological reaction,
• lead to unhelpful behavior, and/or
• interfere with clients’ sense of well-being and ability to take steps to reach their goals.